Monday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

CHRYSOSTOM:

The one who is carried away after a long time is worthy of blame, but the one who falls at the first attack and in the initial skirmish has furnished an example of the greatest weakness. And with this he charges them also, saying “What is this, that those who deceive you do not even need time, but the first assault suffices to rout and capture you?” … At the same time he shows in what great and high estimation he holds them. For if he had thought them mere nobodies and easily deceived, he would not have been surprised by what occurred.¹

CHRYSOSTOM:

And he did not say “from the gospel” but “from God,” for he used terms that were more horrifying and more likely to astound them. For those who wished to deceive them did not do so all at once but gently estranged them from the faith in fact, leaving the names unchanged. For such are the wiles of the devil, not to make apparent the instruments of his hunt. For if they had said, “Depart from Christ,” the Galatians would have shunned them as deceivers and corrupters. As it was, the deceivers allowed them still to remain in the faith while they were undermining the whole edifice with impunity. The language these tunnelers used was covered with these familiar names as with awnings.²

CHRYSOSTOM:

Those who are taught by men, when they have been vehement and hot in the opposite cause, require time and much ingenuity for their conversion. But he who was so suddenly converted and was rendered clean and sober at the very peak of his madness had obviously received a divine vision and teaching.³

1. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 1.6. Edwards, M. J. (Ed.). (1999). Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians (p. 6). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
2. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 1.6. Edwards, M. J. (Ed.). (1999). Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians (p. 6). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
3. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 1.12. Edwards, M. J. (Ed.). (1999). Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians (p. 10). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.